The incredible snaps making a splash: Ocean photographer of the year finalists are revealed

By ROBERT FOLKER, NEWS REPORTER Published: 00:48, 17 August 2026 | Updated: 00:49, 17 August 2026 Thousands of extraordinary images entered by the world's finest ocean photographers have been whittled down to the final few. The finalists for the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026 show just how amazing and unexpected life in the sea can be. Among this year's standout images are moments of wild ocean life at its most astonishing. The selection includes two orcas working together to carry away a humpback whale calf, a scorpionfish mid-meal devouring a lizardfish and a male octopus with its specialised mating arm extended, successfully courting a female. Ocean Photographer of the Year founder and director, Will Harrison, said: 'These photographs don't just capture what's beneath the surface; they surface the stories our planet most needs us to hear.  'As the pressures on our ocean grow, so does the importance of the artists who bear witness to them.  'This year's finalists have produced work of extraordinary depth and courage, and we're proud that Ocean Photographer of the Year continues to be the platform where those stories reach the world.' Category winners, alongside the overall Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026, will be announced in September. A New Zealand fur seal tears apart a rough skate in the waters of New Zealand, while seabirds gather for the scraps This photograph captures a male cardinalfish releasing the larvae he has been brooding inside his mouth A male blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) displays his large claws above the water while protecting a female during mating in Kuwait's Arabian Gulf Southern elephant seal pups explore shallow rock pools on Sea Lion Island in the Falkland Islands, testing their first movements in the water after being weaned by their mothers 'Arms of Connection' captures two octopuses during courtship on a shallow coral reef at Lady Elliot Island, part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef A group of 11 gunnels gathers in a colourful cluster beneath the waters of Seattle A bottlenose dolphin bites a small fish beside a traditional bagan fishing platform in Indonesia A scorpionfish consumes a lizardfish in a moment of hunting behaviour, revealing the constant balance between survival and vulnerability on coral reefs A juvenile weedy seadragon drifts among seagrass beneath Flinders Pier, Victoria, Australia. Unlike adults, young seadragons have darker colouring that helps them disappear among the vegetation In the Pacific waters of Mexico, this photograph captures the aftermath of a successful orca hunt An adult seahorse pictured with newly born juveniles in the shallow seaweed-filled waters of Moorea, French Polynesia